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Healthy 2-Ingredient Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream + Matcha Giveaway!

Let’s talk about Matcha. The popularity of matcha green tea has been growing lately, and I am really excited to share some things that I recently learned about matcha with you! You see, I recently started drinking matcha green tea lattes instead of coffee on the weekends to switch things up, so I started reading more about matcha. So here is everything you need to know about matcha:

Matcha is a finely ground powder made from whole green tea leaves.

Matcha powder is dissolved in hot water completely, instead of brewing it and removing from the hot water like regular green tea.

Matcha contains significantly more antioxidants (10 times more!) than regular green tea since you are consuming the whole ground up green tea leaf. I even wrote about matcha in my article on Tabelog about Antioxidant Powerhouse Breakfasts.

Matcha should be prepared using water between ~165-175F instead of boiling hot water, so you do not degrade the antioxidants and so that you do not extract the bitterness that can be present in green tea. 1/2 teaspoon of matcha to ~4-6 oz water is a good place to start and you can adjust the amount of water or matcha to your liking.

Matcha comes in different grades: Ceremonial grade is the good stuff that should be brewed into matcha tea because it is the smoothest matcha. It is made from the first couple of harvests of young tea leaves from the tea plant. Ceremonial grade matcha is very bright green in color and has a very fresh taste that is silky smooth and not at all bitter. Culinary, or food grade, matcha is better for cooking and baking. This matcha comes from the 3rd harvest of tea leaves and beyond, and it is a bit less bright and tastes less smooth – but it is OK since the matcha is combined with other ingredients. Obviously, the ceremonial grade matcha is more expensive and at first the price can look shocking: ~$40 for 1 oz of matcha powder. But when you think about the fact that 1 oz of ceremonial grade matcha will get you ~15-20 servings of matcha green tea, that is not bad at all. It is much cheaper than going to a coffee shop for a matcha latte, and the purity of the matcha you are getting when buying directly from a trusted company is so much higher than the matcha mixes they use at most coffee shops.

I recently had the opportunity to try both Ceremonial Grade and Culinary Grade matchas from Nature’s Blueprint, and it was just the right timing because I was running out of my other matcha green tea powder that I bought at random on Amazon previously. I have to say Nature’s Blueprint matcha was so much better than the other stuff I bought. The ceremonial grade matcha was so smooth when brewed as a tea – both literally and taste-wise. It doesn’t clump up when dissolved in hot water, and it just has a really smooth fragrant, almost sweet taste. It is great with just a touch of agave syrup, but my preference is always to drink my morning drinks as lattes – with a generous splash of steamed frothy milk.

In addition to trying their ceremonial grade matcha, I made this 2-ingredient Matcha Green Tea ‘Ice Cream’ with the culinary grade matcha. You’ve heard of banana ice cream before, right?Where you freeze chopped ripe bananas and them blend them in a food processor? It makes for the creamiest most delicious ice cream that tastes a bit like banana, but not overpoweringly so since it is very cold. And obviously, it is as healthy as a frozen treat can possible get. When I found out about this trick years ago and mentioned it to a coworker, word of this magical ice cream spread around the office like wildfire – everyone was trying it at home and loving it!

So if you haven’t tried banana ice cream, I recommend starting with this healthy Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream. Adding matcha powder to this treat will make it even healthier and yummier, and green ice cream is just lots of fun to eat.

So what about the giveaway??

Nature’s Plueprint was very generous to provide me with an extra Ceremonial Grade matcha green tea – the really good stuff! To enter, just leave a comment below letting me know whether you’ve tried matcha green tea before and what you thought of it (make sure you enter your e-mail address). For extra chances to win, follow me on pinterest, instagram, twitter, and/or facebook and leave a comment letting me know where you followed me – I will assign more entries to you for extra chances to win.

I will pick a winner at random and get in touch with them via email to mail the matcha green tea directly to them. The comments must be left by 11:59pm April 9, and the matcha will be shipped mid-April. This giveaway is only for those in the continental US. Sorry everyone else. 🙁

If you are unable to enter the giveaway because of your location, or if you don’t win, here are some Amazon discount codes that Nature’s Blueprint created just for Babaganosh:

Use code: BABAGON2

Use code: BABAGON3

This 2-serving, 2-ingredient Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream is the perfect healthy treat. Add a touch of agave syrup if you like your desserts super sweet!

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, chopped into 1-inch pieces and frozen

1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder

Optional: 1/2 - 1 tablespoon agave syrup

Instructions

Remove the bananas from the freezer and let them thaw 5 minutes to soften them. Place the bananas and matcha green tea (and agave, if using) in a blender and process until smooth and creamy. You might need to scrape down the sides with a spoon to get everything to blend. Serve immediately.

This post was sponsored by Nature’s Blueprint, and they were generous enough to provide me samples of their matcha products for my personal use and for the giveaway. All opinions are my own, as always. Thank you Nature’s Blueprint!

This post also contains affiliate links, which means that Babaganosh earns a small commission on the purchases you buy through these links. Using these links is a great way to support this blog without any extra cost to you.

Thank you for the fantastic matcha info as well as the yummy idea for mixing it with frozen bananas! We still haven’t tried it yet, but we sure will, it seems this stuff is rightfully getting the attention it deserves.
Off we go to see the rest of your posts:)
Have a beautiful day dear Kate!
xoxoxoLittle Cooking Tips recently posted…Greek-Indian one pot vegetarian meal (spring ladero)

I follow you on Facebook (Ruy Morr), Twitter (@Ruy977), Instagram (@ruymorr), and Pinterest (@mrsmorris977).
I have tried Matcha tea before and found it to be a bit bitter until I added some honey and lemon.